There have been times over the last two-plus decades where Leon Wood has been on the court, preparing to referee an NBA game, and he has made eye contact with a player from one of the teams.
Maybe the guy will be getting up shots with his teammates. Maybe stretching. Whatever. Wood will give him a look, point to his whistle, ask him if maybe someday he might like to pursue officiating.
The response, Wood told me over the phone recently, is universal: Nah, no way.
Who needs the hassles? Who needs the scrutiny?
It’s a fair point, but in Wood’s case beside the point. More pertinent is the fact that reffing allows him to remain immersed in the game -- that long after the Sixers made him the 10th overall pick in the storied 1984 draft, he is still around, still on the floor.
“I love basketball, something I’ve been doing since 5 or 6 years of age,” said Wood, who at 56 is fast approaching his 23rd season as a ref. “I love every aspect of it. … I love being out there with the best athletes in the world. It’s just something I love.”
His is a unique path, and one followed by only three other former players: The late Stan Stutz, who reffed in the ‘50s, Bernie Fryer, who did so from 1978 to 2007, and the still-active Haywoode Workman, who debuted in 2008.
Wood thinks he understands why so few players are inclined toward the profession -- why they are more likely to transition into coaching or scouting or broadcasting or, well, anything other than officiating.
“This is something that’s just over-the-top different than what you normally do,” he said.
As a player, you get adulation and a nice paycheck. As a ref, you get an unusual amount of grief and an unforgiving spotlight. It’s certainly not for everybody.
Yet Wood, who never drew a technical foul at any point in his playing career, appears to have the temperament for this.
“I really enjoy it,” he said. “I hope to keep going, as long as I’m healthy.”
Understand that he was a terrific player. That he averaged 33.7 points a game in his career at Santa Monica High School (including 41.5 ppg his senior year), then a California state record. That by the time he was done at Cal State-Fullerton he held school marks for points and assists.
He was also a member of the gold-medal-winning ‘84 U.S. Olympic team, playing under Bob Knight and alongside Michael Jordan.
That year’s draft is known as much for its weirdness as its wonderfulness. Jordan was chosen third … one pick behind the oft-injured Sam Bowie. Three Hall of Famers other than His Airness were selected -- Akeem (later Hakeem) Olujawon, Charles Barkley and John Stockton -- but so too was Olympic sprinter Carl Lewis, who for some reason went to the Bulls in the 10th round. (Yes, they had 10 rounds then, eight more than they do today.)
Wood figured he might go to his hometown Clippers at No. 8, but instead they tabbed another guard, Louisville’s Lancaster Gordon. Two picks later the Sixers, who had taken Barkley fifth, snapped up Wood. (He was notably chosen six picks before the Utah Jazz selected Stockton.)
Wood found himself part of a crowded backcourt that included Maurice Cheeks, a still-healthy Andrew Toney, Clint Richardson and Sedale Threatt. As a result he appeared in just 38 games for a team that went 58-24 and reached the Eastern Conference Finals, but tried to make the most of his practice time, tried to push the starters, tried to improve.
All while suffering the usual rookie indignities. He had to bring Toney milk and cookies every night on the road, for instance. And one time the team, which then flew commercial, was seated aboard a plane, preparing to take off.
“And I’m telling you, this is no joke: They’re about to close the doors,” Wood said.
It was just about then that Julius Erving -- yes, the legendary Dr. J -- informed Wood that he very much needed a hot dog and a newspaper.
“Doc, we’re about to leave,” Wood said.
“Guess you better get to running, then,” Erving said.
Long story short, he picked up the desired items, and made the flight.
The season’s most amusing moment came courtesy of the irrepressible Barkley. In Wood’s recollection, the Sixers fell into a tailspin and held a players-only meeting. Erving, the captain, went around the locker room and asked each of his teammates if he had anything to say.
Barkley, of course, did.
“(He) pretty much said he had to be more involved in the offense,” Wood said. “And I remember him saying, ‘Doc, you’re starting to get over the hill,’ and he needed more touches. And I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t starting at the time, and I think shortly after that he ends up starting. … In that locker room I was like, ‘Oh my goodness.’ ”
(A Turner Sports spokesman did not respond to requests to interview Barkley, now an acclaimed studio analyst for “Inside the NBA.”)
Wood was traded to Washington midway through his second season (1985-86), and later spent time with New Jersey, San Antonio, Atlanta and Sacramento, averaging 6.4 points on 39.2 percent shooting over six NBA seasons. He also played in the CBA and overseas before wrapping up his playing career in 1994.
Certainly it weighed on him at times, that things didn’t work out the way he had hoped.
“I don’t dwell on it as much anymore,” he said. “I did for a little bit, especially when I was playing overseas in Spain (in ‘88-89, between NBA stops), and I was playing pretty well. It was just like, ‘You know what? Sometimes it just wasn’t meant to be.’ ”
He thought about getting into coaching after hanging ‘em up, but some friends convinced him to give officiating a try. He took to it, quickly working his way up from high school to college before serving as a replacement ref during the 1995-96 lockout. One year later he cracked the league for good.
It wasn’t easy at first, working games that involved former teammates, as well as coaches he had played for. Some thought he was too easy on those he liked, too hard on those he did not.
"Last year he did one of my games against Chicago," then-Washington forward Harvey Grant told Sports Illustrated late in the '96-97 season. "Michael committed a foul right in front of him, and (Wood) didn't call it. I said, 'Oh, you and Michael played in the Olympics, so you're not going to call that, huh?' He got a big charge out of that."
Wood, for his part, recalls calling a travel on Jordan, which happened about as often as a solar eclipse. And, Wood said, “He laughed at me. It was almost like, ‘I’ve been doing this move all along.’ ”
Predictably, he also found himself in a position where he had to decide whether or not to slap Barkley with a technical foul.
“I can’t remember the exact game,” Wood said. “I didn’t say it, but it was almost that look like, ‘C’mon, don’t make me T you.’ And (he) was almost like, ‘You’re not going to T me.’ So I hit him, and he kind of chuckled, because it was like, ‘My ex-teammate just teed me.’ That’s how it felt.”
Other situations have been less amusing. Last Dec. 29, Wood was stationed on the baseline in the closing seconds of a Bucks-Thunder game in Oklahoma City when Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo powered to the rim for an apparent go-ahead dunk with 1.3 seconds left.
Wood and his fellow officials went to the table to make sure Antetokounmpo beat the buzzer when a commotion arose in the crowd. The fans, having watched the replay on the Jumbotron, had seen that Antetokounmpo clearly stepped on the baseline -- right in front of Wood.
“I thought I was in the right position as far as refereeing what I need to referee,” he said. “So all of a sudden when he goes by me, I’m still refereeing, pretty much, the mid-section up, because I’m looking for body contact.”
The play was not reviewable, because a whistle had not been blown. That meant everybody had to live with it.
Especially Wood.
“And I felt bad,” he said. “I have to deal with this probably, obviously, for the rest of the night, but for the next two, three days. ... As they say, you just have to suck it up, deal with it that night, next day, SportsCenter, the whole nine yards -- your texts and all that. After that, you switch it to the next game. That’s just like if you went 3-for-20 in one game and you have a game the next day. You can’t dwell on it. You’ve got to learn from it, though. You’ve got to learn from it, and then, what is your next move? You’ve got another game.”
Always that.
“But,” he added, “that was a moment.”
This is the life he has chosen, the life he loves. Some nights more than others.
